Typical vending machines have operating instructions, advertising media or product identification displayed on the front face. A front panel bearing the advertising media, otherwise referred to as a sign face, is disposed in an opening formed in a front door of the vending machine. The front panel has a generally curved surface with the advertising media silk-screened on its inner surface. The front panel is illuminated from behind by a fluorescent light source disposed proximate its inner surface. In most cases, the front panel is almost as big as the front door.
In order to discourage vandalism or attempts to break in for food or money, the front panel bearing the advertising media or sign face is commonly constructed from a sturdy, transparent, solid material. To this end, a strong and expensive plastic material such as polycarbonate is used.
With such rigid and heavy polycarbonate front panels, during the silk-screening process as otherwise, manual processing and handling is required. In addition, a final white coat to properly diffuse light for proper illumination and color definition is normally required.
Given the bulk and dimensions of such front panels, they are installed in the front doors of vending machines with substantial effort and difficulty during the manufacturing process. Consequently, it is impractical to replace or substitute them at their place of operation.
Moreover, because of the expensive and strong material used, they cannot be frequently replaced. In order to change the advertising media, the front panel would have to be discarded and replaced with a new or different front panel bearing new advertising media. This requires a major rebuilding of the front door. For foreign countries, vending machines are manufactured with front panels bearing sign faces in different languages. In order to replace signs for different languages, the entire door requires rebuilding which has proved to be a significant limitation from a marketing standpoint. Such requirements necessitate maintaining a substantial inventory of complete vending machines with different languages or alternatively, strict production scheduling to assure the correct panel is attached to each vending machine at the time of manufacture. Thus, prior vending machine sign faces do not provide the flexibility or convenience of being able to change them with ease, as and when desired.
In addition, with prior sign faces it is not feasible to feature advertising of special or new products or replace the sign faces every time the inventory of food or drink items dispensed by the vending machine is replenished. Prior front panels provide only a single section which can be replaced only by dismantling the outer door.
Thus, a need exists for an inexpensive replaceable sign face for a vending machine which can be frequently replaced with ease.